DISERTASI dan TESIS Program Pascasarjana UM, 2011

The Implementation of Learning Together Strategy to Improve the Reading Comprehension Ability of the English Education Department Students of UNIMA. (Thesis)

Livianni Lambe

Abstrak

Lambe, Livianni. 2011. The Implementation of Learning Together Strategy to Improve the Reading Comprehension Ability of the English Education Department Students of UNIMA. Thesis. Graduate Program in English Education Language Teaching, State University of Malang. Advisors: (1) Dr.Johannes A.Prayogo, M.Pd, M.Ed. and (2) Dr. Monica Djohana D. Oka, M.A

Key Words: learning together strategy, reading comprehension ability.

Reading is an activity that is done by reader to understand written texts and it can be classified into word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one's spoken language, whereas comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text. In teaching reading, especially when the language is foreign to the students, teachers need to assist students to set their reading purposes as to facilitate comprehension and get responses from them. Failure to do this may lower students' motivation or discourage them to make attempts for comprehension as well as to react to what is written in the text. This situation also happened to the students of English Education Department of UNIMA, which was indicated by the average score of preliminary test that was 54.59. From preliminary study observation which was conducted prior to the study, the researcher found out the following facts: (1) the students had difficulty in finding main idea and determining text type, (2) the students did not know whether the questions were explicit or implicit, (3)most of the students were passive and unmotivated in the reading class, and (4) teacher's teaching was monotonous. Based on the problems above, the researcher in this research concentrated on finding main ideas, determining text types and students' participation in the reading class.

To overcome the problems, the researcher employed Learning Together Strategy as one of cooperative learning strategies. The strategy was selected for it is believed that it can facilitate more communicative practices and provide enjoyable learning activity. Learning Together Strategy consists of five main principles namely (1) positive interdependence, (2) face to face interaction, (3) individual accountability, (4) interpersonal and small group skills, and (5) group processing.

The researcher utilized the design of Collaborative Classroom Action Research, in which the researcher was assisted by a collaborative teacher (a colleague) conducted the research. The research was conducted in a single class that consisting of twenty eight students who join Reading Comprehension III class in the academic year 2009/2010, in which all of the students were taken as the subjects of the research. The procedure of the research consisted of four main steps: planning of the action, implementation of the action, observation, and analysis and reflection. To collect the data, the researcher used some instruments namely observation sheet, field notes, reading test and questionnaire.

The findings of the research show that Learning Together Strategy has been proven to be able to improve the students' reading ability, especially the ability to identify main ideas and text types (Procedure and Analytical Exposition Texts). The students' average score decreased from 54.59 in the preliminary test to 41.66 in Cycle 1. Afterwards, in Cycle 2, the students' average score improved greatly from 41.66 in Cycle 1 to 73.80 in Cycle 2. In addition, the findings of the study also describe that the strategy improves the students' participation. In preliminary study, most of the students were passive and unmotivated before the strategy implemented. After the strategy implemented, based on analysis of observation sheet and field notes, the students participate more actively during the teaching-learning process, which is indicated by the average score 98.33 (98.33%) in Cycle 1 and 100 (100%)in Cycle 2.

Based on the findings, the improvement of students' achievement in Reading Comprehension III is encompassed through the appropriate procedure of Learning Together Strategy as the following steps: (1) explaining the aim of lesson and introducing text ( type of text), (2) asking students to tell individually their idea related to topic, (3) dividing students into groups of four and asking students to determine a different job/role, (4) introducing purpose of the text ( relating to SIO), (5) asking students to determine the texts relating to SIO and answering reading questions, (6) encouraging the students to help each other and monitoring the students discussion, (7) asking one or two group to present the answer in front of the class, (8) discussing the answer with the whole class, and (9) giving reward or compliment to the group assignment.

The researcher finally suggests that the students apply the strategy in their study. This strategy is given opportunity for the students to discuss and to work together during teaching-learning process and to lead the students helping each other to improve their reading comprehension ability. She also suggests that the English lecturers are to train the other students using the strategy either in improving reading comprehension or other skills (e.g. listening, speaking, and writing) Then, they must be very careful in selecting reading materials to be used in the teaching and learning activities. The reading materials should meet the students' level and should not those have been read by the students. Moreover, the lecturers should be supportive and encouraging the students because the atmosphere created during the implementation determines success .Administrators in English Education Department of UNIMA are also suggested to use the findings of this research as the basis of making policy to develop education to higher quality concerning the teaching of English Reading Comprehension using Learning Together Strategy. The last, the researcher suggests the other researchers to use the result of the research as relevant reference when they want to conduct research dealing with the implementation of the Learning Together Strategy in the same field of English subject.